'This Week' Transcript: Panetta

June 27, 2010

Page 4 of 15

PANETTA: I think what's happened is that the more we put pressure
on the Al Qaida leadership in the tribal areas in Pakistan -- and I
would say that as a result of our operations, that the Taliban
leadership is probably at its weakest point since 9/11 and their escape
from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Having said that, they clearly are
continuing to plan, continuing to try to attack this country, and they
are using other ways to do it.

TAPPER: Al Qaida you're talking about.

PANETTA: That's correct. They are continuing to do that, and
they're using other ways to do it, which are in some ways more difficult
to try to track. One is the individual who has no record of terrorism.
That was true for the Detroit bomber in some ways. It was true for others.

They're using somebody who doesn't have a record in terrorism, it's
tougher to track them. If they're using people who are already here,
who are in hiding and suddenly decide to come out and do an attack,
that's another potential threat that they're engaged in. The third is
the individual who decides to self-radicalize. Hasan did that in the
Fort Hood shootings. Those are the kinds of threats that we see and
we're getting intelligence that shows that's the kind of stream of
threats that we face, much more difficult to track. At the same time, I
think we're doing a good job of moving against those threats. We've
stopped some attacks, we continue to work the intelligence in all of
these areas. But that area, those kinds of threats represent I think
the most serious threat to the United States right now.

TAPPER: All three of those individuals were tied in some way to an
American cleric who is now supposedly in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki. He has
said to be on an assassination list by President Obama. Is that true
and does being an American afford him any protection that any other
terrorist might not enjoy?

PANETTA: Awlaki is a terrorist who has declared war on the United
States. Everything he's doing now is to try to encourage others to
attack this country, there's a whole stream of intelligence that goes
back to Awlaki and his continuous urging of others to attack this
country in some way. You can track Awlaki to the Detroit bomber. We
can track him to other attacks in this country that have been urged by
Awlaki or that have been influenced by Awlaki. Awlaki is a terrorist
and yes, he's a U.S. citizen, but he is first and foremost a terrorist
and we're going to treat him like a terrorist. We don't have an
assassination list, but I can tell you this. We have a terrorist list
and he's on it.

TAPPER: "The New York Times" reported this week that Pakistani
officials say they can deliver the network of Sirajuddin Haqqani, an
ally of Al Qaida, who runs a major part of the insurgency into
Afghanistan into a power sharing arrangement. In addition, Afghan
officials say the Pakistanis are pushing various other proxies with
Pakistani General Kayani personally offering to broker a deal with the
Taliban leadership. Do you believe Pakistan will be able to push the
Haqqani network into peace negotiations?